Solid state memristive devices rely on the drift of mobile charge dopants upon the application of an electrical field, as discussed in the 20080090337 Patent Publication. These types of devices have been found to have promising properties in the fields of both digital and analog non-volatile electronic logic. To illustrate the potential of analog non-volatile electronic logic, synaptic computing has emerged as a potential technology that is enabled by the relatively small size, low cost, and low power consumption provided by solid state memristive devices.
Researchers have designed nano-scale reversible switches with an ON-to-OFF conductance ratio of 104. Crossbar circuitry is often constructed using these types of switches. A useful configuration of this crossbar circuitry is a latch, which is an important component for constructing logic circuits and communicating between logic and memory. Researchers have described logic families entirely constructed from crossbar arrays of switches, as well as hybrid structures using switches and transistors. The devices that are presently fabricated have room for improvement particularly in terms of cyclability.